


The difficulty of capturing an idiot's heart

by orehitosuji



Series: Idiot captains in love [1]
Category: DAYS (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-08-13 04:19:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7962154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orehitosuji/pseuds/orehitosuji
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>10 times someone noticed Indou was in love with Mizuki, and one time Seiseki's idiot captain got it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The difficulty of capturing an idiot's heart

  1. Narukami



So Narukami’s always known about Kaoru’s thing for his sister. It’s fairly obvious, the way he praises her (pretty average) curry to heaven and does his best to spend more time with her. What he hadn’t expected was for those attentions to change and be placed on a guy. The captain of their so-called rival team, no less. 

On hindsight, he supposes he shouldn’t have been _that_ surprised. Kaoru’s always been full of praise for Mizuki Hisahito, though his compliments have been limited to the other boy’s performance on the soccer pitch. Still, life is unpredictable and rivalry has the potential to turn into something more, which explains why he is watching Kaoru sneaking Mizuki’s phone out of his bag while the Seiseki captain was engrossed in watching the game. After stealthily punching a few buttons on the phone, Kaoru checks his own phone and, apparently satisfied with what he’s done, returns it to its original place. Then he leans back and continues watching the match nonchalantly, as if he hasn’t sneakily gotten Mizuki’s number by ‘borrowing’ his phone for a while. 

It’s too much of a bother to say anything, so Narukami just pretends that he didn’t see anything. Besides, there’s no point in trying to stop Kaoru – he’s known his captain long enough to be able to tell, from the amount of effort he’s putting in on Mizuki, that this one is likely to last for a while. At least his sister will have it easier with one more idiotic suitor removing himself from the running. 

 

  1. Usui



Usui figures it out eventually, of course. 

Because seriously, who the hell manages to get a phone number without asking anyone on Seiseki’s team or Mizuki’s classmates? To the best of his knowledge, no one has given out Mizuki’s number to Indou, so for the Seiseki captain to come in for practice complaining that someone “gave my number to that idiot who doesn’t know how to wear jackets properly” meant that something was up. Coupled with the way Indou was staring at Mizuki’s ass that one time they passed by each other in the players’ holding area in the stadium, and his numerous childish attempts to catch his attention by calling him an idiot… 

Well, unlike _some_ people on the team, Usui’s more than capable of putting two and two together to get four, so. 

He would be lying if he said he wasn’t worried, of course. Mizuki’s too dense to have enough self-preservation, and though Indou can act like a total loser off-pitch he’s still fairly smart. If Indou does anything to keep Mizuki out of play (here Usui has to work hard to keep certain images out of his head), Seiseki’s chances of winning will drop. By a lot. So it’s up to him, as vice-captain and (generally) Mizuki’s friend, to ensure that Indou doesn’t get his way. Moreover, if Mizuki’s safe, then _sensei_ will have fewer things to worry about and can…he sighs, and darts a mournful glance at Nakazawa- _sensei_. ‘When will I be able to stop cleaning up after Mizuki and start taking care of my own issues?’ He wonders. Just then, he sees Kasahara walking towards him from the other end of the corridor, and can’t help but click his tongue in annoyance at the other third-year. 

Kasahara blinks at him. “Did…I do something wrong?” 

“Yeah,” Usui sighs. “Why couldn’t it be you? As someone sensible who’s on our team, you’re a totally safe option that _sensei_ would approve of, and then we wouldn’t have this problem to deal with. I have _plans_ , you know, and I’m not going to be able to put them in motion to get his attention if I keep having to put out fires!” He walks away, leaving Kasahara to blink after him and wonder what’s going on that has Usui so rattled. 

 

  1. Kisaragi
  2. Kondou



They find out about Indou’s affections at the same time, because they’re unlucky enough to be there when it happens. 

 _It_ being the moment when Indou gives Mizuki a _very_ backhanded compliment about his nice ass being on his head, thus explaining the Seiseki captain’s stupidity. 

Mizuki growls and calls Indou an idiot. They glare at each other, uncaring of the other people around them, looking like they’re moments away from a fight. Kisaragi gawks at Indou, heedless of the unsightly expression his face is making. Kondou doesn’t show it, but he’s suddenly wishing that he was anywhere but further down the corridor from the captains of Seiseki and Sakuragi. Indou insulting Mizuki is normal, but an Indou who has noticed Mizuki’s ass and is willingly bringing it up, even for an insult, is somewhere out of the bounds of reality. What’s even more incredible is how Mizuki hasn’t seemed to have noticed the compliment embedded in the insult – any normal person would’ve caught it and been flustered, but Mizuki just looks like he’s spoiling for a fight. 

In sync, Kisaragi and Kondou do an about-face and dash away from the scene, thankful that the sounds of argument behind them are covering up their escape. Right before they enter the safety of the locker room assigned to the Sakuragi team, they exchange a glance that says ‘We’re _never_ going to speak of this again. _Ever_.’ 

The pact is completely broken when Indou does something stupid during the next practice, and Narukami calls him out on it by yelling, “Have you gone too dumb from falling in love with Mizuki?” Thus begins the open season on teasing their captain about his crush. Kondou would really rather they didn’t mention it at all, since it _is_ their rival they’re talking about and no one should have to hear speculation about why Indou likes Mizuki. But Kisaragi says it’s good for team morale, so he guesses he’ll let it go. Just until Indou really snaps and gets mad at them. 

 

  1. Haibara



He notices it, and it troubles him, so he brings it to Usui as usual. 

“Na, Usui, haven’t you noticed that whenever Sakuragi’s around, Indou keeps finding some opportunity to be close to Mizuki? Like by riling him up with insults or something? 

Usui, who’s drinking from his water bottle, chokes. 

“And occasionally he looks like he’s checking out Mizuki’s butt. But that can’t be, right? I heard he’s crushing reaaally hard on some girl…” 

Usui’s coughing really loudly. It’s almost as if he’s trying to drown out Haibara’s voice. Haibara speaks louder to make sure Usui can hear him. 

“Man, if I didn’t know better I’d say he was some kindergartener trying to pull the pigtails of the girl he liked or something! But that’s impossi-” 

“Haibara!” Usui seems to have gotten a grip on his coughing; he’s now looming over Haibara, gripping his shoulders almost painfully. “It’s just Indou taunting Mizuki as usual, that’s all. Get it?” 

Haibara slowly nods, slightly creeped out by the intense look on the vice captain’s face. “Yeah, you’re right.” He sighs. “Man, we gotta keep a closer eye on Mizuki! If Indou starts bullying him more and he fights back we’re totally gonna lose our chances of winning…” 

Usui breathes a sigh of relief. Then nearly jumps when a hand comes to rest on his shoulder. He turns around to see 

 

  1. Inohara



He couldn’t help overhearing Haibara and Usui’s conversation, because he was curious. And also because he’d noticed the behaviour Haibara was describing, but had initially attributed it to some strong feelings of rivalry from Indou’s side. Then Haibara had mentioned the kindergartener crush, and a light bulb had gone on in his head. Judging from the way Usui was trying to vehemently deny it, with unusually flushed cheeks, Inohara decided that his hypothesis was right. He sighed. If only Mizuki was smart enough to take care of himself. Then he wouldn’t be so involved in babysitting along with Haibara and Usui, and could spend more time texting his girlfriend. 

Inohara drops his hand on Usui’s shoulder, noting that the other boy startles for a heartbeat before regaining his composure and turning around to face him. He gives the vice-captain a thumbs-up. “Don’t worry, if we work together I’m sure we can keep Indou away from Mizuki until the season’s over at least,” he reassures Usui. “Even if his intentions are…less than honourable.” 

The emphasis gets through; Usui’s eyes light up at the realisation that he’s not alone in defending their dense captain from Indou, while Haibara whoops. “Yeah! We’ve been doing it for so long now, we just have to keep going on! Mizuki Defence Team, go!” 

Inohara nods. How hard can it be to keep Indou away from Mizuki, anyway, until his puppy love fades? 

 

  1. Ooshio



Being a student _and_ a coach really wasn’t easy. He’d known it wouldn’t be easy, yet he hadn’t factored in the difficulty in managing the diverse personalities on the Sakuragi team. Much less the difficulty of reining in the team’s idiot, Indou. 

Once, he would’ve thought it unfair to call Indou an idiot – the guy was a genius on the field and had good leadership skills. However, put a certain Seiseki player called Mizuki Hisahito in front of Indou, and his intelligence appeared to fly out of the window. Having Mizuki around resulted in the emergence of idiot-Indou, whom Ooshio had to keep a stern eye on; he also had to apologise to others on behalf of the idiot, because he was being rude. The embarrassment of having Sakuragi’s captain act like such a _child_ was mitigated, in part, by Seiseki’s captain being equally childish as well, so at least Nakazawa- _san_ could empathise and forgive easily. 

Things went further downhill, however, when he overheard the Sakuragi regulars teasing Indou about his crush on Mizuki. He’d been about to open the door to the clubroom to ask to see Indou regarding an upcoming game, but a shouted “Ooooh, look at you defending your crush. Why don’t you just tell Seiseki’s captain you like him already?” stopped him in his tracks. As he stared, horrified, at the door, a cacophony of teasing sounds and comments followed the question as Indou spluttered excuses about “just being rivals” and “just because I admired his nice ass _that one time_ ”. Upon hearing the sound of footsteps approaching the door in the midst of the noise, he hurriedly backed away from the door a little, then made as if he was striding to it when the door opened to reveal Indou himself, bag slung over his shoulder. He stopped when he noticed his coach standing there. “Coach! Did you want to see one of us?” 

“Y-yeah, I was looking for you, actually.” Ooshio cleared his throat and gestured for Indou to walk with him. “It’s about the next game…” 

As much as he wished he could erase the knowledge that Indou liked Mizuki out of his head, he couldn’t. He didn’t particularly want to deal with the whole my-team-captain-likes-the-rival issue, either; it had a lot of potential to go wrong and get him in trouble with the school and the other team’s school, after all. This resulted in him keeping a beady eye on Indou the next time they met with Seiseki, so he would be ready to intervene if anything happened. He discreetly rolled his eyes when the next time the teams met Mizuki, pissed off by a comment Indou made, left, and Indou’s gaze dropped to the other boy’s ass as he walked away. Really, being a coach wasn’t easy at all. 

 

  1. Kimishita



After the game ended, it was time to cool down, pack up and go. As they were filing out of the locker room to go back, Tsukamoto had noticed that the captain was absent, and reported it. Usui had gotten this glint in his eye upon hearing that Mizuki wasn’t with the team, and sent out a search party of Kimishita and Ooshiba while he went ahead, hands rubbing comforting circles on Haibara and Suzuki’s backs. So search they did, and since they couldn’t stand each other they decided to split up and look for Mizuki on the pretext that it would go faster that way. Ooshiba went to walk around the exits to see if he had wandered there, Kimishita to the toilets. 

Kimishita was in the process of pushing in the door when he caught a glimpse of a black jersey. ‘There he is,’ he grumbled internally, and was about to call out to the captain when he realised that Mizuki wasn’t alone. Sakuragi’s Indou was there, too. 

He hesitated, keeping the door open just a crack so he could appraise the situation before going in. Mizuki was splashing water on his face, bent over the sink, while Indou was…simply standing there and looking at him. He was positioned a little behind Mizuki, with an indescribable look on his face and a hand hovering over the Seiseki captain’s back. Almost as if he wanted to touch the other boy and comfort him but couldn’t, for some reason. 

Kimishita stared at Sakuragi’s captain for a while before it clicked. “Damn,” he cursed lowly. “I’ve gone and stumbled onto something troublesome.” 

Letting go of the door, he stepped back a few paces and then started stomping back to the door. “Oi, captain, where are you?” he yelled, pausing for the tiniest moment before flinging the door wide open. “Oh, there you are,” Kimishita said nonchalantly to Mizuki, alone by the sinks, now upright and blinking away the water from his eyes. “Let’s go, everyone’s waiting for you.” 

As they leave the toilets, Kimishita glances back over his shoulder at the lone stall door that’s closed. “Cheh,” he snorts, letting the door close behind him. It’s none of his business if someone can’t man up and say what he feels, after all. 

 

  1. Kazama



He may look all happy-go-lucky, but he’s really quite perceptive. As such, it’s no surprise that Kazama Jin knows about Sakuragi’s Indou liking their captain, even without overhearing it from his seniors or Sakuragi’s team. 

Kazama just _knows_ , from the way Indou looks at Mizuki like he’s the greatest challenge of Indou’s life. Like the Seiseki captain is some kind of treasure he wants to keep to himself, away from the eyes of the world. Like Mizuki is the only one that _matters_ , though there are so many other good players on the field. 

What’s interesting to him, though, is the way he can’t tell whether those feelings are returned or not. Kazama cracks one eye open just enough to focus on the back of Mizuki’s head, as Nakazawa- _sensei_ drones on about the new items on their training menu. ‘I wonder if he even knows about Indou’s feelings,’ he thinks. Then he shrugs mentally and shifts his gaze so it rests on Tsukamoto, sitting at the edge of his seat beside him. ‘Oh well, it’s all good since there’re fewer rivals for this one. And as long as Tsukushi isn’t involved, I don’t really care what happens to the rest…’ 

 

  1. Nakazawa



Nakazawa- _sensei_ pinches the bridge of his nose, and exhales loudly. In front of him, Sakuragi’s Indou is standing at attention, looking straight ahead. The look in his eyes is unrepentant, and makes Nakazawa sigh again. 

“You know,” he starts, “I don’t even want to know what you were trying to do. I mean,” he gestures at the bus next to them, “finding out that Mizuki sleeps on the bus so he won’t be late, and coming here just to-” Here he chokes, unable to say the words “stroke his hair”, which had been what he’d caught Indou doing to a sleeping Mizuki when he’d arrived 5 minutes earlier. He clears his throat and tries one more time to express his jumbled thoughts. “Just- how’d you even, I mean…look, it’s hard enough for me to deal with one idiot, so what I’m trying to say here is that, you need to be the smart one here. That idiot needs someone to take care of him, so if- _if_ anyone likes him and wants to be with him, they have to show that they’re capable enough to do so. Which means not doing anything stupid that could potentially get them in trouble with teachers and such. It also means not doing anything to jeopardise his, or their own, career. You get what I’m trying to say?” He asks, and Indou slowly nods, realisation sparking in his eyes. Nakazawa coughs and looks away. “If you get it, then…just go, before anyone else sees you here. And don’t forget what I said!” He hastily adds, as Indou jogs away after bowing to him. When Indou’s safely gone, he sighs and pulls his cigarettes out of his pocket. “Seriously, the things I do for idiot students like you…” he grumbles at the bus. 

Three cigarettes later, he’s calmed down enough to have gotten a better grip of the situation at hand. When Usui, Haibara and Inohara arrive later, he pulls them aside and reiterates the need to help him look after Mizuki so nothing untoward happens to the captain. 

Haibara looks confused. “Like an injury?” 

“Er, not exactly.” Nakazawa scratches his chin. “More like…make sure no _unsavoury_ characters go near him. So he can’t get into trouble if he gets hot-headed, you understand?” He adds, hoping that they think he’s talking about fights and gangsters rather than sex and a certain rival team’s captain. They don’t need to know that much to be extra-vigilant, hopefully, and he doesn’t want to get into trouble talking about perverted things to his students. Even if it’s for the sake of another student. 

Luckily, Usui and Inohara seem to get it somewhat, because they’re nodding firmly. “Great,” he says, relieved. “Okay then, go on and get ready to go.” 

Inohara and Haibara run back to the bus, but Usui lingers. “At this rate,” the vice-captain mutters, “I’m going to graduate without having gotten you to look my way, _sensei_.”

“Huh?” Nakazawa blinks, wondering if he’s misheard. And since when was Usui standing so close…? “What did you say, Usui?” 

Usui heaves a theatrical sigh. “Nothing. I’ll be sure to keep Mizuki safe, _sensei_ , so your mind can be free for other things.” And he smiles angelically before turning to saunter back to the bus. 

Nakazawa watches him go, confused and unable to rid himself of the feeling that he’s being hunted like a small prey.

 

 

+1 time Mizuki figured it out.

“And then what happened?” Kasahara asks over the phone. 

“Mmm.” Mizuki taps his pencil against his homework; he’d been attempting to do some of it, under the threat of having his soccer ball at home punctured by his mother, when Kasahara called to catch up. He hasn’t heard from his friend in a while, so it’s a welcome distraction – besides, he’s obligated to explain the text message he’d sent to the other boy yesterday, which had said “I’m a taken man now” and nothing else. “So he was walking me home to make sure I didn’t get lost again, and we were alone by the river when he suddenly started going on about how he couldn’t wait anymore, even if _sensei_ did warn him that he had to be smart. And he also said something about how if he had to wait until he wouldn’t ruin my career he’d be too wrinkly to get it up.” 

“…wow, Indou really sounds like he’s gone crazy.” 

“I told him that, too. Then he got all serious, grabbed me by the shoulders and told me he had a question, and I absolutely had to answer it then because he’d really go crazy if I didn’t.” 

“What question was that?” 

Mizuki clicks his tongue impatiently. “I’m getting there – be patient.” 

“Sorry, sorry,” Kasahara laughs, not in the least bit contrite. “Go on, then.” 

“Indou shouts, right then and there, like the idiot he is, that he likes me and asks me to go out with him.” Mizuki savours the shocked silence on the other end of the line, and continues, “But I didn’t think I could go out with an idiot like him, so I decided to give him a test. To see if he really was an idiot, in which case I could reject him and get it over with.” 

“Shouldn’t you be rejecting him based on whether you like him or not?” Kasahara asks slowly. “I mean, if you like someone, their idiocy can be something you live with, right?” 

“No, because their idiocy might rub off on you and you’d become an idiot. That’s not good, having both people in the relationship be stupid,” Mizuki explains, thinking that Kasahara’s must really be a good guy to be able to ignore idiocy in his partner. “Anyway, I told him that we’d pass by a convenience store in a bit, and if he could go in and buy my favourite food from it he’d pass and we could date.” 

“That’s…not a test of intelligence. In fact, it sounds like you just wanted a treat…” 

Mizuki clicks his tongue again. “No, it’s a test. Because how would someone not close to me know what I like to eat?” 

Kasahara sighs. “So you were setting him up to fail, then? Since you guys barely meet – how would he even know you like gummies?” 

“It’s a fair test since I was testing his intelligence, Kasahara. How many times do I have to tell you that?” 

“…right, okay, go on then. What happened?” 

“Well,” Mizuki turns his head to look at the pile of gummies at the corner of his table, “he went straight for the candy shelves when we reached the convenience store, grabbed all of the gummies there and bought them. He’s still an idiot, though! Buying so many bags even though just one would’ve sufficed.” 

There’s silence on the other end of the line, and Mizuki checks his phone screen, worried over whether Kasahara has hung up on him. He’s still on the line, though, and he returns the phone to his ear to hear soft laughter. “You bastard, are you laughing at me? Why’re you laughing?” 

“N-nothing. Just thinking that, that you’re really loved, that’s all.” Kasahara gets his laughter under control, and says gently, “So you’re going out now? Since he passed the test.” 

“Aa. I told you I’m a taken man now, didn’t I?” 

“Yes, you did.” A pause, then Kasahara asks, “Do you like him too?” 

Mizuki thinks for a moment. “He’s good at soccer, so I guess so.” 

An exasperated sigh comes from over the line. “There’s more to liking a person than their soccer skills, you know! What about his character, and stuff like that? Does he make you happy?” 

“I know,” Mizuki mutters, thinking of a hardworking figure who would practice later than the rest, watch videos and learn when he wasn’t practicing. “I know that there’s more to liking a person than soccer. And I think,” he tilts his head back, “no, I _do_ like him. He’s an idiot, but I like that he’s straightforward. And how he’s got a bit of craftiness to him.” There are quite a few things he likes about Indou, he realises, and groans. He’ll never live it down if the idiot finds out about this. 

Kasahara’s soft chuckles bring him back to the conversation at hand. “Take care of each other, then,” his friend says. “I know I’m not there like Usui and the rest, but if there’s anything I can help with, even if it’s just to hear you out, send me a text or call.” 

Mizuki smiles. “Aa. Thanks.” They end the call shortly afterwards, and Mizuki’s about to put his phone away so he can concentrate on homework when it rings to signal he’s received a message. It’s from Indou, and it reads: “Thinking of you before I go to bed so I can have sweet dreams (*^o^*)” 

A vein pops up on Mizuki’s head, and he bashes out a reply: “That’s right, brag about sleeping when I’m stuck doing my homework. DIE, IDIOT (＃｀Д´)”, puts his phone on silent and tosses it far away from him. Later, when he’s done and about to go to bed himself, he checks his phone before switching it off only to find that he has more than 10 missed calls and a dozen text messages, most of them some variation of “Are you mad? Don’t be, I wasn’t bragging just joking” and “Answer my calls, damnit”. Only the last text is different, and it reads: “I’ll treat you to takoyaki next time, so forgive me? Don’t let your anger get in the way of you having a good rest. Sleep well, I love you. Goodnight.” 

Mizuki huffs out a sigh and tries to suppress the flush heating up his cheeks. He replies with a curt “Call me to fix a date for takoyaki” and stretches out on his futon. His grandfather did always tell him to reply other people properly, but if he texts Indou back with an “I love you” it’ll probably be used to tease him later, so he’ll pass on that. Besides, it’ll be less troublesome to tell him in person when they meet. Provided the other boy doesn’t piss him off then, that is.


End file.
